Hard to believe we are just a week away from Labor Day, but before you indulge in all things pumpkin spice, let’s take a look at some music that your ears should be consuming.
Hot AC/Top 40
Starting as usual in the Top 40/Hot AC space is one that sounds like a no-brainer crossover track from Country, get your ears on Max McNown/ “Better Me For You.” Mix in Houston is a believer so far in the Hot AC space.
Because the Pop formats can always use a good rock song, your ears should also be on Goo Goo Dolls / “Not Goodbye (Close My Eyes).”
I have a couple more for this week, Renee Rapp / “Shy” is over a million streams this week with zero radio airplay. It also has a nice groove and strong hook. Love the lyric, “It’s hard to make me nervous, much easier to piss me off!”
I’m also liking from the K-Pop space Le Sserafim / “Different,” a catchy song that your ears should be on!
Rock
Let’s move on to the ROCK space for this week. If your station is in the Active Rock space, you should be listening to Mammoth / “The Spell.” It is a really cool, hard-driving song with a good hook.
Alternative
From the Alternative world, Of Monsters & Men / “Ordinary Creature” should certainly be on your radar with 94.7 NRK in Portland jumping in with all day-parts support.
One more this week from the AAA space, a very strong catchy song from Goose / “Madelena.” It’s getting good early support from notable stations in the format WFUV/New York, WXPN/Philadelphia, and WTTS in Indianapolis.
Country
Switching gears to the COUNTRY space this week.
Jordan Davis w/Marcus King / “Louisiana Stick” solid streaming numbers for the week, about 1.2 million. The song has a good hook and sounds like a hit!
Another one that you should have in your ears is Parker McCollum / “Solid Country Gold.” A song with the lyric “Give me a Z-28 with an 8-track tape” is not a bad one to listen to!
Zach Top / “Use Me” gathered 1.6 million streams for the week and is getting some huge love from 93 Q Country in Houston. You should get your ears on this if you have not already!
Rhythm
Let’s move into the RHYTHM space for this week.
First up is one that could also work for Top 40 Maroon 5 w/ Lil Wayne / “Love Is Like” has a really cool vibe.
Cardi B / “Imaginary Playerz”- even with having to play the clean version, it’s still worth your ears, with some fun rhymes in the lyrics, such as “Winter is minks out, I buy grown men gold watches and make them take links out!”
So, there you go, plenty of ear candy for your weekend enjoyment.
Enjoy!
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Jim Ryan is a Music Radio columnist for Barrett Media. In addition, he runs Jim Ryan Media LLC, a consulting company which assists major market radio brands and top talent including national radio personality Delilah. Prior to relaunching his consultancy in 2025, Jim spent 15 years with Audacy/CBS Radio, serving as SVP of Programming. Among his responsibilities included programming WNEW-FM and WCBS-FM. His career includes additional programming stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. Jim was voted the #2 PD of 2024 in Barrett Media’s Top 20 series in the AC category. He can be reached by email at Jim@JimRyanMedia.com.
